Hanrahan will be missed, but Melancon should be able to step into a late inning role fairly easily. The other three pieces have their pros and cons as well: Sands has big time power but doubts as to whther he can adjust to major league pitching. Pimentel has a big fastball but major control issues. De Jesus is similar to Holt – decent bat but stretched defensively at any position but 2B.

All in all, I like this trade for the Bucs. They were able to buy low on Melancon and sell high-ish on Hanrahan. It’s almost an even trade right there; the other pieces just add the potential for this be a huge deal in the Pirates’ favor.

The 29 year old lefty has struck out an outstanding 9.1 batters per nine innings in his career and can be very effective when he limits his walks. Unfortunately, his control has been very erratic since tearing an elbow ligament during his fantastic rookie season. Still, there’s some upside here and $7M a year is not bad considering what what the going rate for pitching has been this winter.

UPDATES: Multiple sources say that Liriano won’t take his physical until after the holidays, so this deal won’t be official for a while. Jon Heyman reports that the deal is actually for just under $13M, so hooray for saving a little cash.

The Royals and Rays made a big trade Sunday night. Both teams are trying to win now – The Royals by rebuilding their rotation with James Shields and Wade Davis and the Rays by reloading with young, cheap talent.

You see something interesting when you follow this tree from start to finish for the Royals. Effectively they have used six draft picks, four since 2008, and turned those into four players who are slated to start for the team this season. Along the way they got a few good years from Mike MacDougal and a few excellent years from Zack Greinke. Who knows what Wil Myers and Jake Odorizzi will turn into with the Rays, but in a vacuum I think most teams would take that kind of return on their draft.

Michael Young was traded to the Phillies over the weekend, ending his eleven and a half year stint in the Rangers organization. Young leaves Texas as their all time leader in several categories: games, plate appearances, at bats, runs, hits, doubles, triples, sac flies, total bases and grounded into double plays. Looking back, I had forgotten that Young was not originally drafted by the Rangers. He was acquired in a trade deadline deal for Esteban Loaiza, who himself was acquired from Pittsburgh in a deadline deal two years prior.

For the Phillies, they fill their hole at third base with a past-his-prime player who doesn’t field very well anymore. He should fit right in.

This is just a quick update to the trade tree I made for the big Marlins/Blue Jays trade. Miami has flipped SS Yunel Escobar to the Rays for infield prospect Derek Dietrich. I saw Dietrich play several times at Georgia Tech and he always looked solid to me.

Looking back at my checklist of what to expect, they got the catcher and a bunch of relievers. Look for the team to acquire at least one starting pitcher and several more relievers as the off-season rolls on.

The latest rumors have the Mariners interested in Garrett Jones. The reported deal would have included catcher John Jaso coming to the Bucs, so it may be dead now that they have Martin.

In the Bullpen: This is where the most change will happen. Joel Hanrahan, Tony Watson and Jared Hughes will be there. Every other spot is up for grabs. This is OK because reliever performance can vary wildly from year to year. Bullpens are also one of the easiest pieces of the team to build on the cheap. For those same reasons, it’s also possible that Hanrahan could be traded if another team is willing to give up a solid catcher or starting pitcher.

So that’s it. The Pirates will sign or otherwise acquire a catcher, a starting pitcher and a slew of relievers.

What else was to be expected? The major moves were made in July – Wandy Rodriguez and Travis Snider.

There aren’t any obvious bargains to be had on the free agent market. Look closely at that list and you’ll find that each player falls into one of three categories: old, bad or prohibitively expensive. Any significant improvement will have to come via the trade route. If they could swing a trade for Giancarlo Stanton or Wil Myers or a shortstop with half a bat to go with this glove it would be beyond great, but I just can’t see a deal like that happening. This is your 2013 Pirates team. And it looks a whole lot like the 2012 team.